William Yates (15 November 1792 - 3 July 1845) was an English Baptist missionary and orientalist. He created a Bible translation into Bengali.

Life

Yates was born in

Loughborough Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood (borough), Charnwood Borough of Leicestershire, England; it is the administrative centre of Charnwood Borough Council. At the United Kingdom 2021 census, the town's built-up area had a popula ...

, he was the second son and third child of William Yates, a shoemaker, and his wife Ann, ardent members of the Baptist communion. He was educated at

Loughborough Grammar School Loughborough Grammar School is a 10–18 Private schools in the United Kingdom, private boys' school in the town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England, founded in 1495 with money left in the will of Thomas Burton (merchant), Thomas Burton. To ...

, where he showed an aptitude for

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

. In 1812 he went to

Bristol Baptist college Baptists Together, formally the Baptist Union of Great Britain, is a Baptists, Baptist Christian denomination in England and Wales. It is affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance and Churches Together in England. The headquarters is in Didc ...

where he decided to become a missionary. Yates set sail as a missionary on the ''Earl Moira'' on 24 October 1814 and landed at

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

on 16 April 1815. There he worked with William Carey on translations of

The Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writte ...

into

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

and various other languages. Yates was at

Serampore Serampore (also called Serampur, Srirampur, Srirampore, Shreerampur, Shreerampore, Shrirampur or Shrirampore) is a city in Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Srirampore subdivision. It is a part ...

when the missionaries there fell out with the British society and Yates moved to nearby Calcutta as a result of the schism. Yates became the centre of a controversy that helped to found the Bible Translation Society charity. The

British and Foreign Bible Society The British and Foreign Bible Society, often known in England and Wales as simply the Bible Society, is a non-denominational Christian Bible society with charity status whose purpose is to make the Bible available throughout the world. The ...

refused to fund the publication of the new translation.D. S. Margoliouth, ‘Yates, William (1792–1845)’, rev. Lynn Milne, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 31 July 2014
/ref> The pivotal case was the translation of the Bible from Greek into

made by Yates and Carey after a decade of study. When Yates made the translation he had chosen to translate the word "Baptise" as "Immerse". This aligned with the Baptist beliefs, but not necessarily with every denomination's values. The new society was formed by the Baptists but the formation of new Bible translation societies proved divisive and expensive and they were eventually de-merged. On 13 January 1816, he married Catherine Grant, the daughter of a deceased missionary. In 1827 he returned to England via America but soon returned to India.

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

awarded him an

honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

Doctor of Divinity A Doctor of Divinity (DD or DDiv; ) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity (academic discipline), divinity (i.e., Christian theology and Christian ministry, ministry or other theologies. The term is more common in the Englis ...

on 4 September 1839. Catherine died in 1838. In 1841 Yates married Martha Pearce, the widow of a colleague, William Hopkins Pearce. He set sail for England in 1845, but died ''en voyage'', three days from

Suez Suez (, , , ) is a Port#Seaport, seaport city with a population of about 800,000 in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez on the Red Sea, near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal. It is the capital and largest c ...

References

* James Hoby,
Memoir of William Yates D.D.
', London, 1847.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yates, William Bible translators Translators of the Bible into Bengali English Baptist missionaries English orientalists People from Loughborough 1845 deaths 1792 births 19th-century translators Baptist missionaries in India 19th-century Baptists British missionary linguists